About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

The Islands come together in the Rock Oyster Vatted Malt

It’s no secret that I’m curious about vatted malts (and no secret that I’m somewhat of a holdout on calling them “blended malts”, in compliance with the SWA’s decree). While this category was completely abandoned by the big corporations, the independent bottlers have definitely come into this category, and are in the midst of an “arms race” creating signature vatted malts to represent the different regions of Scotland and different styles of whisky.

Photo Credit: seescotlanddifferently.co.uk

As usual, the Douglas Laing Co. leads the pack, covering the last big whisky region (All but Campbeltown and the Lowlands) in their latest release, Rock Oyster. This brings the vatted malt collection to four with Big Peat representing Islay, Scallywag from Speyside, the Timorous Beastie from the Highlands and now Rock Oyster from the Islands (including Islay). This is a maritime blend with plenty of salt and peat and lots of character, that’s made by blending whiskys from Jura, Islay, Arran and Orkney.

Photo Credit: thegreenwellystop.co.uk

Rock Oyster (46.8% ABV, NCF, NC)

Appearance: Pale gold, slow and thin legs leave behind some residue.

Nose: Smoky vanilla and coconut, peat and some new make youngness. Light spices come through together with some light citrus. The sea is on the nose bigtime with salt and a beach bonfire.

Palate: Peat with a sweet note, light pepper on the tongue, fresh fruit, youngish whisky with a touch of new make, and salt.

Linger: Salty on the tongue, spicy in the back of the throat, with an overall sweetness coming through on the medium length linger.

Conclusion

This vatted malt is a real busy-bee, with a lot going on there. The salt is very prominent and so is the peat. But there’s more going on there, which makes this expression very interesting and enjoyable, despite a clear youngness.

This is sort of what I would expect from from a young, unsherried and seriously peated Old Pulteney…